Menlo Park, CA is a relatively small city in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is known for its vibrant and diverse community. Politically speaking, Menlo Park has been a Democratic stronghold since its incorporation in the early 1900s. In recent years, local politics have focused heavily on issues such as housing affordability, transportation access, economic revitalization, and police reform. The city council is composed of five members who are voted in by local residents every two years. In addition to the five council members, there is an elected mayor who chairs council meetings and serves as the official spokesperson for the City of Menlo Park. Local elections typically see high voter turnout from citizens of all backgrounds who are eager to shape the future of their community.
The political climate in Menlo Park, CA is moderately liberal.
San Mateo County, CA is very liberal. In San Mateo County, CA 77.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 20.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Mateo county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 77.9% to 20.2%.
San Mateo county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Menlo Park, CA is moderately liberal.
San Mateo County, California is very liberal.
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area is very liberal.
California is strongly liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Menlo Park, California: D D D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Menlo Park, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 51,472 contributions totaling $36,750,696 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $714 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,675 contributions totaling $3,671,459 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,373 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)